Page 4 - BOL Sept 21 Edition

COVID: long-lasting

symptoms rarer in

children than

in adults –

new research

When COVID-19 arrived, it quickly became clear that older but after day 28 had an average of just two. The most common
age was the biggest risk factor for developing severe symptoms (over their entire illness) were fatigue, headache, loss
disease. Indeed, there are few diseases for which age is so of smell and sore throat, with the first three of these most likely
clearly the most important risk factor. to be longer lasting.

NHS doctors have seen this daily. There have been over 131,000 We also looked at responses to direct questions posed by the
UK deaths from COVID-19, but early research (still awaiting COVID Symptom Study app about symptoms that might affect
review by other scientists) suggests that very few children learning, such as “brain fog”, dizziness, confusion and low mood.
(fewer than 30 in the UK) have died from COVID-19 or related Brain fog was reported in 9% of younger and 20% of older
conditions. Consequently, children have been regarded as being children (on average lasting two days in older and one day in
at low risk. younger children); and dizziness in 14% of younger and 26%
of older children (lasting two days in each group). Low mood
However, as the consensus grows that the virus will become was reported in 8% of younger and 16% of older children (also
endemic, and with most high-risk people (in rich countries) now lasting two days in each group).
vaccinated, questions about how COVID-19 affects children
have become prominent. We therefore sought to understand Making comparisons
this – particularly in relation to the vast majority of children who We then compared these results against those of children who
do not need hospital care. Here’s what we found. had COVID-like symptoms, recorded them on the app, but
ended up testing negative (and so who may have had been
Most children recover quickly infected with another virus, such as rhinovirus or adenovirus).
We looked at children’s illness using data from the COVID These children had, on average, shorter illness (only three days).
Symptom Study, a citizen science project in which members of Very few had symptoms lasting four weeks.
the public log their (or their children’s) COVID-19 symptoms and
test results through an app. We assessed children who tested However, those children without COVID-19 who were ill for more
positive, whose test coincided with them reporting typical than four weeks reported more ongoing symptoms than those
COVID-19 symptoms, and in whom the reporting of symptoms who tested positive for COVID-19. This provides an important
continued regularly for at least 28 days after their illness started. reminder: assessing and treating any child who is unwell should
be our priority, whether in the pandemic or at other times,
We found that children with COVID-19 most commonly suffered whether it’s COVID-19 or any other illness.
from headaches, fatigue, fever and sore throat. They usually got
better quickly: the median length of illness was six days – slightly Our findings are consistent with studies from Switzerland and
shorter (five days) for primary school children and longer (seven Australia, which also showed that most children recover fully
days) for teenagers. from COVID-19. Our estimates of the number of children with
longer illness duration are, however, lower than the estimates
As many as 4.4% of children reported ongoing symptoms at or from the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS). This may be due
beyond 28 days (compared with 13.3% of adults, using the same to different ways of assessing lasting illness, but it’s hard to be
methodology). This rate was slightly higher in older children sure as the ONS’s methods haven’t yet been published in full.
(5.1%) compared with younger children (3.1%). However, nearly
all children (98.4%) had recovered by eight weeks, suggesting Like all studies, our research has some important limitations. We
that long-lasting illness is less common in children than in adults. only captured those children who had an adult who was part of
the COVID Symptom Study, was using the app and willing and
Importantly, the number of symptoms in these children with able to report for a child.
long illness didn’t appear to increase over time: on average,
they had six different symptoms during their first week of illness We also only captured data from children whose symptoms